adhesion

plural adhesions · alternative adhæsion

1. uncountableusuallyThe ability of a substance to stick to an unlike substance.
2. uncountableusuallyPersistent attachment or loyalty.

   2 more examples

   [N]o waver in Judgment, have I, though Gods mercy, ever been; but a conſtant aſſertor of, and ſufferer for my ſatisfiedneſs in, and adheſion to, the piety and probity of my breeding and belief, vvhich vvas ever, yet is, and I hope, through Gods grace, to death ſhall be, in point of Religion according to the Doctrine and Diſcipline of the Church of England.

   1666 October 30 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Edward Waterhous[e], “To His Noble Friend and Kinsman, Sr. Edwarde Turno[u]r, Knight; Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons in this Present Parliament”, in A Short Narrative of the Late Dreadful Fire in London: […], London: […] W. G. for Rich[ard] Thrale […], and James Thrale […], published 1667, →OCLC, pages 188–189

   Who doubts that the fineing, whipping, torturing, hanging, embowelling of men, women, and children, guilty of no other crime than adhesion to the Catholic faith, had assisted the Pope and Philip, and their band of English, Scotch, and Irish conspirators, to shake Elizabeth's throne and endanger her life?

   1867, John Lothrop Motley, Project Gutenberg History of The Netherlands, 1555-1623, Complete

3. uncountableusuallyAn agreement to adhere.

   Mistress Affery, heartily glad to effect the proposed compromise, gave in her willing adhesion to it.

   1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC

4. uncountableusuallymedicineAn abnormal union of surface by the formation of new tissue resulting from an inflammatory process.
5. uncountableusuallybiochemistryThe binding of a cell to a surface or substrate.
6. uncountableusuallyThe frictional grip on a surface, of wheels, shoes etc.

   1 more example

   Several types of diesel locomotive have been tested on this working and as a result the probable choice will be Type 2 diesels in pairs, without bankers. The crucial factor in the selection of this method is the higher degree of adhesion obtained than with a single Type 4; on trial one of the latter showed that in very adverse conditions it might slip to a standstill at one of the two tricky spots on the steep climb from Tyne Dock to Consett.

   1964 September, “News: Fewer diesels for NER in 1965”, in Modern Railways, page 201